Method and Apparatus for Yoga Class Imaging and Streaming

ABSTRACT

The ability to view and participate in various types of instructional classes, including Yoga, remotely and on-demand has become increasingly popular and accessible. However, participating in instructional classes off-site does not replicate the same experience as participating in an instructional class on-site, live with an instructor. The claimed system and method allow the viewer participant to view and take part in an instructional class from any location and at any time without compromising the viewer&#39;s ability to experience a participatory class experience. The system and method place the instructor at the head of the classroom with live-participants arranged between the instructor and the camera with a direct line of sight between the camera and the instructor allowing for the viewer participant to have unobstructed views while simultaneously allowing for the viewer participant to have live participants in the periphery, as if the viewer was attending a live class.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit and priority of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/377,608, filed 27 Aug. 2010, which is incorporatedherein by reference to the extent permitted by applicable law.

U.S. GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Area of the Art

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for thefilming, video editing and mixing, and streaming via the internet of alive yoga class, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus forthe set-up and filming process of a yoga class to transmit from the liveon-site yoga class to a viewer participating remotely via a website.

2. Description of the Background of the Invention

Yoga in its many and various forms, has been practiced for thousands ofyears. As a form of exercise yoga stresses harmony of the body throughstretching and strengthening exercises. Today, students generallyparticipate in classes either by in-person attendance or at home bywatching a video of the class. By “video” and “filming” is meanttechnology for recording and disseminating moving images (video) andwell as sound (audio) of a class or any other event. Although actual“film” is still in limited use, it is anticipated that within the usefullife of the present invention technologies not yet in widespread usewill be the normal way of imaging and recording events. Similarly,“videos” (i.e., discs or tapes), “streaming via internet” and “via awebsite” are intended to encompass present and future technologieswhereby captured video is distributed to end users.

One may either attend a class in person or purchase a video in-store oron-line (e.g., pay-per-download). Those classes where studentsparticipate via video typically are arranged to show the yoga instructorin the foreground with students attending the class located behind theinstructor, such that the person viewing the video is closest to theyoga instructor. The class participants are placed behind the instructorwhere they mirror the movements of the yoga instructor. Alternatively,some classes may arranged to show the yoga instructor and the studentsfrom the side of the classroom. Either way, such filming perspectivesinherently provide the impression of viewing a class rather than ofbeing an active participant in the class.

In addition, viewing a class from such perspectives can be detrimentalto the participant watching the video because at a subconscious levelthe participant realizes that he or she is not truly a member of theclass and that the exercise routines are being conducted without trulyincluding the participant.

Further, the traditional method of capturing video data on the tape andthen processing it from tape through editing through to a final productis a long, laborious and expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention creates an experience of participating in a realclass with real students even though the viewer is not actually presentin the class. This is accomplished by the unique setup of the classroom,the position of the yoga instructor and yoga participants and theposition of the camera imaging the yoga exercises and stretches. Theperspective of the viewer watching the captured image is thus one of anactual participant in the class. The instructor is placed at the head ofthe studio with the yoga participants arranged between the yogainstructor and the camera. A direct line of sight between the camera andthe yoga instructor, a “no mat area,” is provided so that there is anunobstructed view of the yoga instructor which allows for aparticipatory view of the yoga class for the viewer.

The present invention, including its features and advantages, willbecome more apparent from the following detailed description withreference to the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic of the placement of the yoga instructor,the yoga class participants and the video camera in a yoga class studio,according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an actual yoga class led by a yogainstructor and attended by yoga participants allowing for a direct lineof sight from the camera positioned at the back of the class to the yogainstructor positioned at the front of the class, according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of the process of the set-up andimaging of a yoga class to transmit from the live on-site yoga class toa student participating remotely via a website, according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a first screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a second screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a third screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a fourth screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows a fifth screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 shows a sixth screen shot from a website, showing various yogaclasses and workshops which may be enjoyed by a participant, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description is provided to enable any person skilled inthe art to make and use the invention and sets forth the best modescontemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention. Variousmodifications, however, will remain readily apparent to those skilled inthe art, since the general principles of the present invention have beendefined herein specifically to provide a method and apparatus forimaging the video and sound editing and mixing, and streaming of thevideo/sound via the internet of a live yoga class in such a manner thata remote viewer feels included in the class.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a top perspective view of a yoga class 1 insession is shown. The various combined elements of the perspective ofthe filming are designed and intended to create an experience for theremote video participant of being embedded in a real class with actualstudents. The design and construction of the studio itself are specifictowards meeting such intent and/or objective.

The studio is a room having a front area (closed by a wall in thisexample), a rear area (also closed by a wall), and two side walls(generally not shown, here). To begin with, with regard to theconstruction and preparation of the yoga studio itself, Wall A ispreferably a white flat wall roughly 16 feet high. A 16 ft ceilingheight allows for an expansive white wall that covers the entire left toright width of the field of view. The floor itself is preferably made of5″ wide white oak wood. If the planks of the wood floor are too thinthen the viewing experience is a little too busy and gives a feeling ofsimply being a gym floor, as opposed to a larger wood panel floor thatprovides a more substantial feeling of a more sophisticated andwelcoming setting. The elements of the studio construction therebyprovide a proper atmosphere and ambiance for the yoga video participant.

Further, with regard to the set-up of the yoga class itself, theinstructor position at the front of the room contains the instructor'smat. The back edge of the teacher's (instructors) yoga mat 2 ispreferably approximately two feet from Wall A. The front edge of theyoga mats of the front row of student positions 3 is preferably aminimum of one foot from the front edge of the instructors mat 2;however, some variation is acceptable. The remainder of the studentpositions (yoga mats) 4 are strategically placed so that the mats arerelatively evenly spaced apart and even in distribution around the yogaclass area. Such placement helps to create the experience of being in areal class. Additional mats 5 may be placed towards the rear of thestudio. The instructor's yoga mat 2 is then positioned perpendicular tothat of the student's mats 3, 4 and 5. Additionally, a wirelessmicrophone can either be attached to the yoga instructor or placedsomewhere nearby, the audio from the microphone being controlled andmixed remotely. Music can be mixed in as well. All of the resultingaudio feed then combined with video output of the camera 9 andsubsequently recorded.

An image capturing device (camera 9—labeled in FIG. 1 as “GloCam”) ismounted at the back of the yoga studio (i.e., Wall B) and may beconcealed (e.g., housed inside a white box or other concealingstructure). The camera is preferably about 35 inches off the ground andpreferably about 40 feet from the instructors mat 2. It should be notedthat the camera may be somewhat higher or lower; however, the placementof the camera allows for the participatory view of the yoga class. Ifthe camera is placed too high or too low the resulting perspectiveschange the look and feel of the viewer's experience. The same holds truefor the distance of the camera from the instructor. The preferredembodiments of the height and distance thus allow for the bestexperience for the viewer of seeming to actually practice yoga with theinstructor and other yoga students in a class setting. With respect tothe camera itself, it is preferably a high definition camera, forexample, a Sony PMW-EX1, f=5.8 to 81.2 mm (equivalent to 31.4 to 439 mmon 35 mm lens), which records its output to an ExpressCard/34 memorydevice. Additionally, depending on the time of day, the camera can beset to automatically accommodate changes in lighting. Camera wires runfrom the white plastic box to a remote location and the camera ispreferably operated remotely with no film crew inside the class tointerfere with the ambience and feeling of a regular yoga studio.

Further, a corridor 6, labeled in FIG. 1 as a “no mat area”, runs downthe middle of the studio 1. The corridor 6 allows for the unobstructedview of the yoga instructor and the yoga instructor's mat 2. The “no matarea” corridor 6 is preferably about five feet wide starting from theyoga instructor's mat 2 through the area of the student's mats 3 and 4to a point preferably about six feet from the camera 9, at which pointcorridor 6 widens to preferably about six feet. Corridor 6 which must beat least the minimum of the width of the instructor's yoga mat 2, ispreferably perpendicular to the center of the instructor's mat andcentered around that perpendicular line. Accordingly, it is to beunderstood that corridor 6 down the middle is made large enough suchthat the yoga class feels to the viewer to be sufficiently attended butnot so constrained as to give a claustrophobic look of looking down asmall tunnel of vision. Additionally, corridor 6 widens at a pointcloser to the camera so as to create an additional impression of beingin the class with other participants, but not right on top of otherparticipants either. Corridor 6 is left vacant so that the camera 9 canzoom in on the instructor demonstrating on the yoga mat to show theclose up details of the instructor's demonstration without any classmembers getting in the way and obstructing the view for the viewer.

Lastly, placement of camera 9 at a distance from the instructor's mat 2creates an angle of “widest” viewing. Such wide angle is shown by dottedlines 7 and 8, each line basically running at 45 degrees from theperpendicular line between the camera 9 and the yoga instructor's mat 2and going off to each side of the yoga studio. Lines 7 and 8 essentiallyshow what camera 9 can view at the widest lens angle.

It will be appreciated that while the most common application of thepresent invention is within an actual yoga studio classroom as describedabove, the application is also applicable to a studio (stage) settingwhere the classroom appearance is replicated. In that case, the frontwall (Wall A) could merely be a partition towards the back of the stage.The camera 9 is placed the requisite distance from the “front” of theclassroom with the students arranged between the “front” and the camera9. Other details (such as camera height) remain the same.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a yoga class is illustrated led by a yogainstructor 11 and attended by yoga participants 12, 13, 14, 15, etc. Thestudents are facing Wall A and the instructor 11 so that a filmingperspective is from the back of the yoga class with the students' backsfacing the camera (not shown). The illustration is basically taken fromthe camera eye and therefore the viewers eye is positioned as the personat the back of the class in the center with a direct view to theinstructor 11. As shown, this then allows a direct line of sight fromthe camera positioned at the back of the class to the yoga instructorpositioned at the front of the class. The viewer thus has the directline of sight from the camera to the yoga instructor with a periphery ofother participants so as to create participatory feel.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 a and 3 b, the method of imaging and streaminga video of the yoga class is shown. First, in step 10, the yoga studiois prepped and made ready to receive students for yoga class before thestudents arrive. This step includes housing the camera inside a box,preferably a white plastic box, and the camera is set to a fixed heightfrom the floor and made stationary. The floor is marked with tape todesignate the “no mat area”. The instructors mat is placed in position,and the instructor is fitted with a wireless microphone.

In step 20, the camera operator stands by in a remote location ready tooperate the camera by means of remote zoom controls and a video monitor.A wireless microphone receiver inside the remote location feeds into anaudio mixing board which then feeds back into the camera or otherrecording device. When music is used in the class, the music playing inthe studio is mixed live with the voice audio from a wirelessmicrophone, audio levels are adjusted and then fed into the recordingdevice as a single voice/music audio feed. Of course, it is notnecessary to record the audio/video stream which can be distributeddirectly to remote participants as a live performance.

In step 30, the Students arrive at the studio and lay down their mats inpreparation for the class the same as they would in any other yogastudio, except that they may not place their mats within the “no matarea” corridor marked off with tape.

In step 40, while the yoga class is being imaged, the instructorconducts the class according to the YogaGlo filming guidelinesdeveloped/iterated over time and via trial and error and user feedbackto engage the student at home, to create the experience of being in areal class with actual students.

In step 50, while teaching the yoga class, the instructor willoccasionally demonstrate poses on the yoga mat. When this occurs thecamera operator will zoom in on the teacher to fill the camera frame toshow the close up detail of the demonstration.

In step 60, after the yoga class is finished, the camera memory card(s)are downloaded onto a computer.

In step 70, the video of the yoga class is loaded into off the shelfvideo editing software for minor adjustments and to add a YogaGlobeginning title page, then exported in raw format.

In step 80, the raw video is then processed by proprietary encodingscripts in 3 different levels of video quality—HD, middle resolution,low resolution. The encoding scripts are written to maximize videocompression while maximizing video quality.

In step 90, the encoded, compressed video is uploaded to YogaGlo'sservers and assigned accordingly to the YogaGlo website.

In step 100, in live stream of the classes, the same process is usedexcept that the encoding occurs in real time and is uploaded in realtime to the servers.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 through 9, screen shots from a website, showingvarious yoga classes and workshops which may be taken by a participant,are shown. The web site has high quality yoga instruction content thatis constantly refreshed. Thus web viewers don't have to buy just oneclass and do that same class over and over again, instead they cansubscribe to the web site and have an exhaustive range of teachers,styles, levels durations and special content for special use that isconstantly refreshed and available 24/7 where ever they are.

In the forgoing description, the method and apparatus of the presentinvention have been described with reference to specific examples orembodiments. It is to be understood and expected that variations in theprinciples of the method and apparatus herein described may be made byone skilled in the art and it is intended that such modifications,changes and substitutions are to be included within the scope of thepresent invention as set forth in the appended claims. The Specificationand the drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrativerather than in a restrictive sense.

The following claims are thus to be understood to include what isspecifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptuallyequivalent, what can be obviously substituted. Those skilled in the artwill appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of thejust-described preferred embodiment can be configured without departingfrom the scope of the invention. The illustrated embodiment has been setforth only for the purposes of example and that should not be taken aslimiting the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, withinthe scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherthan as specifically described herein.

1. A system for automatically producing a video representation of a yogaclass configured so a remote viewer enjoys the experience of being in areal yoga class, the system comprising: a studio having a front area anda rear area; an instructor position located in the front area and facingthe rear area; an image capturing device for capturing video located inthe rear area and disposed to capture an image of the instructor in theinstructor position; a line of sight corridor disposed between the imagecapturing device and the instructor; a plurality of student positions,facing the instructor position, distributed across the studio betweenthe instructor position and the image capturing device wherein thestudent positions do not impinge upon the corridor; sound captureequipment to capture at least audio of the instructions given by theinstructor disposed in the instructor position to the students disposedin the student positions; and means for combining the audio and thevideo to form a video representation.
 2. The system according to claim1, further comprising remote control systems whereby the image capturedevice pans and zooms.
 3. The system according to claim 1, furthercomprising means for recording the video representation.
 4. The systemaccording to claim 1, further comprising means for streaming the videorepresentation via the Internet.
 5. The system according to claim 1,further comprising means for adding music to the audio.
 6. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the instructor position includes aninstructor's mat and each student position includes a student mat witheach student mat disposed normal to the instructor's mat.
 7. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the corridor becomes wider near the imagecapture device.
 8. A method for automatically producing a videorepresentation of a yoga class configured so a remote viewer enjoys theexperience of being in a real yoga class, comprising the steps of:providing a studio having a front area and a rear area; placing aninstructor position at the front area of the studio, the instructorposition disposed to face the rear area; locating an image capturingdevice for capturing video in the rear area disposed to capture an imageof the instructor in the instructor position; laying out a line of sightcorridor between the image capturing device and the instructor;distributing a plurality of student positions, facing the instructorposition, across the studio between the instructor position and theimage capturing device wherein the student positions are distributed soas not to impinge upon the corridor; capturing at least audio of theinstructions given by the instructor disposed in the instructorposition; and combining the audio and the video to form a videorepresentation.
 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising astep of remotely controlling the image capture device.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 8, further comprising the step of recording the videorepresentation.
 11. The method according to claim 8, further comprisingthe step of streaming the video representation via the Internet.
 12. Themethod according to claim 8, further comprising the step of adding musicto the audio.
 13. The method according to claim 8, further comprising astep of placing an instructor's mat in the instructor position and astudent mat in each student position with each student mat disposednormal to the instructor's mat.
 14. The method according to claim 8,further comprising a step of increasing the width of the corridor nearthe image capture device.